175： Overcoming Drug Addiction ｜ Court McGee
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 9 minutes
Summary
Court McGee is a UFC fighter who has overcome a life long battle with drug and alcohol addiction. In this episode, he shares his story and how he was able to use his experience in the sport to help others.
Transcript
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Addiction is something a lot of men are facing, whether it's an addiction to alcohol, pornography,
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or drugs. It is something that can be overcome. Today, I am joined by UFC fighter Court McGee
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to talk about his battle with addiction and his ability over the past decade to fight
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and win this never-ending battle. We talk about his positive upbringing, how he used
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fighting as an outlet, the disease of addiction, his downward spiral, and how he has overcome his
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drug addiction. Guys, this one is a bit different as I wanted to give Court the platform to share
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his story because I know it's going to resonate with so many of you. So I gave him the mic and let
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him run. You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart
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your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time. You are not
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easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who you are.
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This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,
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Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler and I am the host and the founder
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of this podcast, The Order of Man. I want to welcome you to what I, at least, and I think
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probably thousands of other men, consider to be the best podcast available for men. We are having
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bring on some amazing guests, athletes, scholars, New York Times bestselling authors, warriors,
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I've got a great one lined up for you today. I've got just one quick announcement, and that
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is my friends and sponsor of this show, Origin Maine. Now, I know you guys have heard me talk
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again, go check it out. In the meantime, guys, let's get to the conversation today. Now I am
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honored to introduce you to my guest. I mentioned him already, Court McGee. He's a UFC fighter. He's
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also the winner of the 11th season of the Ultimate Fighter. I know a lot of you guys have watched that
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show. Despite his accomplishments in the ring today, we're actually going to be focusing on
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his personal life outside of it. He spent a lot of his life hooked on just about every
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drug imaginable. He talks about that. In fact, he once overdosed on heroin where he was estimated
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to have spent eight minutes without a heartbeat or pulse. There is no doubt that Court McGee is a man
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who knows how to fight, but I'm absolutely blown away with the story of his greatest battle in
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overcoming addiction, walking the path of long-term sobriety, how he handles adversity and how he's
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taken his greatest challenge and turned himself into a force for good.
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Court, what's going on, man? Thanks for joining me on the show today.
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Yeah. We had a conversation. I don't know. It must've been two or three weeks ago.
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It was powerful. I was blown away. I wish we would have been able to record that last time
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we talked because I was just blown away with some of the things that you've been through and some of
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the stories that you, uh, that you shared. So I think we're going to be able to duplicate or replicate
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it here, man. Absolutely. I'm here and available. No, what it could have should is just, just here
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and present, right? That's right. I want to talk about that idea of presence. I mean, I know in,
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in your history and your background, you had opportunities to be present. You've had
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opportunities in times where you haven't been fully present through some addiction stories and
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overcoming some of that. And I know just based on our conversations that you've been able to
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get on top of that stuff and be more present and be more engaged with the things that are
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important and meaningful for you. Can you tell us a little bit about your backstory with
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addiction and then we can kind of go from there? I grew up in Layton, Utah, right off of Hill Air
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Force Base. And I have a hardworking middle-class family. My mom went back to school to be a nurse
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when I was preteen, teen. And my dad worked civil service on Hill Air Force Base as a mechanic and
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hydraulics technician, airplane mechanic, fuel mechanic for fighter jets. And so I have one
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older sibling, an older brother that's 18 months older than me. No neglect, no abuse, very loving
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household, not overly religious. We had family who was practicing various religions. I had a aunt and
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uncle who were like ordained Baptist ministers, but I didn't have like a real strict upbringing. It was
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just honesty and, you know, attendance and attitude, making sure we did what we said we were going to
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do. But in growing up, especially younger, I was an active kid and fearless. And so I had, you know,
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tendencies to kind of be rowdy. And you sound like my fourth man. He's really, really route. My others
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haven't, but he is the rowdy one for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Well, my second's the rowdy one to keep it
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short. It's like, uh, basically I got into martial arts when I was pretty young. I experienced like
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this semi-traumatic experience where I was with some of my cousins at a amusement park and there
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was an older cousin that was with us. And I kind of got separated from the group for several hours and
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I got really scared and I hid behind this little hot dog stand. And then they tried looking for me
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and they couldn't find me because I was hiding and I got dehydrated. And I'm still to this day,
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like I don't eat condiments because the smell of ketchup, mayo, mustard, relish. I was about five.
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Okay. After that, after being found, like I had this anxiety and fear of crowds, big places,
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but outside of that issue, I didn't have anything traumatic happen. I had a loving, loving family.
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And it's like shortly after that, I had problems in school because I was, I would get scared. I'd get
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nervous. And then, and sometimes I would go like, just stay in the restroom because I felt safe. And
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there wasn't a big group of people. It was hard for me to focus. And my family put me into martial arts
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and that's like the starting of my martial arts. And that was at about six or seven years old.
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Did they just think that would help with your level of confidence or what was their reasoning
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for doing that? The idea was to give me confidence and then have me, you know, be part of a group,
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part of something, you know, there was other kids in there, maybe make some friendships,
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but I fell in love with it. And I had an instructor who was like a little rough around the edges. He had
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wrestled in high school and college. He had competed as an amateur boxer. He was like a world-class
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kickboxer and he got into the karate because there was money to be made in, in youth karate. And so
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this dude was like tough. And he started teaching me to like punch and kick. And he taught me some
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jujitsu and he taught me some wrestling. And then he talked to my parents into getting me into city league
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folk style wrestling. And so I did that and I just had this passion for it. And that's what kind of
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started my passion for combative sports. And outside of one season of t-ball, possibly two,
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the only thing I've done for the last 26, 27 years is combative sports outside of that one season of
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t-ball. So that led to competition and I got into wrestling and I realized that I was going to get
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taken down by a wrestler. So I had to learn wrestling. And then I don't know, I saw this
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documentary called, uh, Mark Kerr, the smashing machine in that documentary. He was a high level
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wrestler and he was, had problems with opiates, steroids, stuff like that. But like the sport itself
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was so raw and the fighting was so raw. I thought I've got to do that. If I can become one of the baddest
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people on the planet, it doesn't matter if I get left, I'll be okay. And I think that's kind of my
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early thought on that situation. Was that a helpful thought or did you feel like that hindered you in
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some other areas of your life? I think that gave me my first interaction with pain medication because
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I saw him take pain medication because he was in pain so that he could continue to compete.
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So you used it in a way to numb yourself so you could continue to drive on. Is that what you're
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saying? Yes. And that's what I saw him do. And I wanted to mimic that. And so I got into a junior
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high, high school, and I had some altercations with some kids in middle school. I didn't realize,
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but I have a form of dyslexia where it's challenging for me to, to read text and numbers
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and letters and letters and I am colorblind. And so it's challenging for me to read text,
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black text on white backing. So it made it hard for me to read and understand what I read. And so
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early on, I was forced to cheat and my parents were really pleased when I came home with good grades.
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And so I did whatever I could to secure straight A's. And so that's what I did. I forced myself to,
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you know, do, do some like some pretty crazy stuff. And looking back on it, it's impressive to me now
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when I explain it, but I remember I had, it was my first year of high school. It was a ninth grade,
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but it was in a middle school. It was separate. The ninth, 10th, 11th, and 12th wasn't in the same
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ninth was still in the middle school, but I had an honors English teacher and he was
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also my wrestling coach and we had president or not English teacher, sorry, history. And it was an
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honors history class. And we had to do president reports on all the presidents and we did one a
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week. And so I would ride my bike about two miles to my grandfather's house, who was a retired
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Lieutenant Colonel. He was a pilot. He flew Casey one 35 refuelers, and he could also read in excess of a
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thousand words a minute and retain like 70 to 80% of it, which led to his success in the air force
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and achieving that level of rank. Was it just a photographic type memory that he had?
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Yes. And super, super fast, like flipping through pages fast and detailed. It sounds like too. Yeah.
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Yes. So what I would do is I got this encyclopedia and they were, you know, like three to four pages,
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just kind of dictating the life of the president pre during, and then after, and then a lot of the
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things that they did. And so I couldn't get through the text. So I would read like the first paragraph
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and the last paragraph, and then I would go give it to my grandfather. So I'd ride my bike several
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miles to his house, talk to him a little bit, like I knew about the president. And then he would skim
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through that stuff. And then I would conjure up information and then I would remember that
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information. And then I would go home and then I would have my brother type it on our old ass
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computer. And I had a challenging time typing. And so I would ask my brother or I'd pay him in candy
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bars. And I would say, Hey, listen, this is what I want you to type. And I would remember what my
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grandfather talked about. And so we would do a one page report and he would type it double spaced.
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And that would be my president report. And I did that all year long.
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There's like a fine line between cheating and just ingenuity, right? Just being creative and
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finding a way to make it work. Finding a way around it. Yeah. You know,
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eventually I graduated with honors and I did really well, but I was forced to cheat. I was forced
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to find ways to succeed because when testing time came, like it wasn't good. I couldn't get through
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the material. I couldn't read the material. It was very challenging. But I almost wonder if that type of
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thought actually serves you though, you know, because you're going to be faced with other challenges.
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And if you can be creative, whether it's in the ring or outside of the ring and how to address
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those problems, I think it gives you a leg up than just memorizing information.
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Yeah. So with me, nothing is by the book. It's all through memorization and through the process.
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Everything is through personal experience. And that's how I teach martial arts. That's how I work
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with training partners. That's how I, when I research stuff and I do stuff, I have to do it through
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practical application and then I have to write it down myself and work through it that way. It's
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really strange. But going back during that time, I found difficulty like fitting in and I started to
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get picked on and through my martial arts background, it was like always, you know, find a way out,
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find a way out. And then I got to a point where I got cornered and some kids knocked my glasses off
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my face. And then I just opened up and I, I literally beat the shit out of like six or seven
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kids in this locker room. And it felt great. I had no way out. I knew I was going to be in a lot of
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trouble because they had broke my glasses and my dad was going to kill me because I was rowdy. And I
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had broken so many glasses and cost him so much money. And, but it was my breaking out moment. Like,
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I'm never going to get picked on. And I didn't fit in with any group ever, but I had a lot of friends
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from different backgrounds, but I didn't fit in. I didn't have a group that I fit in with. I wasn't
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the popular kid. I wasn't, I wrestled, but I didn't feel like I was part of the wrestling team. I
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wasn't part of the book club. I wasn't part of the chess club. I wasn't one of the jocks. I wasn't
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one of the preppy kids. I didn't fit in anywhere. And I had always kind of felt like that,
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but I found solace in training. I found, you know, like I found, you know, like a sense of
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ease and comfort from training and learning how to get strong and learning how to be
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a martial artist and learning how to wrestle and take people down. And then eventually learning how
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to, you know, incorporate all those things together, which is what mixed martial arts is.
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Do you feel like you've fit in now or have you just reconciled the fact that you're never going to
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fit in? Like where are you at right now? What kind of space are you in with, with regards to that?
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I found my group and it's a group of recovering drug addicts and alcoholics who are in long-term
00:16:03.900
recovery. And I found that through treatment and a 12 step program. So my group is 30 plus million
00:16:12.680
strong here in the United States. The crazy statistic though, is that 90% of us started using and
00:16:20.420
drinking in our teenage years, which shortly after that like eighth, ninth grade year, we had family
00:16:28.720
property in Lava Hot Springs. And my dad is a beer drinker and I would sneak into his beer.
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And that was my first like experience with beer. And I didn't drink it because I liked the taste.
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I drank it for effect. And once I caught a buzz, all of a sudden it didn't matter about fitting in.
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I was like, okay, I found it. But the question is, cause I think there's, I mean, me included,
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I think just about every kid out there probably got drunk in high school. I mean, it's what you do.
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How does that then spiral into something that's addiction and destructive the way it is versus,
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yeah, I used to drink when I was a kid in high school. I used to steal my parents' alcohol or
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whatever. You know, there's obviously a huge difference. How does it get to that point?
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This is the important thing to note is that long before I took that drink or drug,
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I had the disease of alcoholism and addiction inherent in my personality. Maybe that came
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through my great grandfather or some of my siblings because there's alcoholism in my,
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in my gene pool. What I did by taking those first couple of drinks or trying marijuana was I
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triggered that allergy, the allergy of addiction. At first it was fun, you know, and I was told like,
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you know, don't drink until you're 21, you know, it's bad, bad things can happen, but I see the
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adults do it. And my dad, you know, it's like, I remember in like third or fourth grade, I was told
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if you drank a six pack of beer, you would die of alcohol poisoning. And I thought that's a lie.
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I've been lied to. And I've seen my dad drink a six pack. And all he does is crack old man jokes
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and cook. And like my dad never still to this day, I have never heard him raise his voice to my mom.
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He does all of the shopping and like, he's the most kind, loving man, not to mention he had a hero of
00:18:23.800
the city latent city award for donating just over 60 gallons of blood, which is the second largest
00:18:30.920
donator in the history of blood donation. Really wonderful neighbor. He's an incredibly gentle,
00:18:36.740
kind, loving individual. And so I thought these people lied. So I'm going to take this drink.
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And once I took that drink, I went, wow, I see why people do this. Yeah. And my problem was I
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couldn't stop or limit the amount. So it's like I had to continue to drink. And then when I caught
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that buzz, I had to continue to drink to increase that buzz. And I found out that I was a blackout
00:19:04.580
drinker within the first couple of times I drank. But I knew that there was repercussions with that,
00:19:10.900
not to mention, I knew I had to get through high school. Plus, I didn't want to interfere with my
00:19:15.100
wrestling. Now that my wrestling started taking off in high school, I came out and I beat somebody I
00:19:21.160
wasn't supposed to on the team. I made a varsity position. And then pretty soon it was like, I was
00:19:25.640
one of the top wrestlers in the state of Utah within a year of my high school competition. And
00:19:31.400
I thought, wow, okay, I can do what my parents suggested. Like, Hey, maybe go into college
00:19:36.680
and I can wrestle in college. That way I'll get an education through wrestling, not necessarily go to
00:19:42.160
college to get an education, go to college to wrestle, to fund your wrestling. Right.
00:19:46.660
Well, and then I can fit myself to be like that Mark Kerr guy. I'll have high level wrestling and
00:19:53.100
then I can just incorporate that and then become a mixed martial artist.
00:19:56.620
Was that the point to go into UFC? I mean, did you have that goal and that ambition
00:20:01.860
That was the point to wrestling. That's the whole reason I was wrestling
00:20:04.260
was to become a better fighter. I wanted to fight and that's what I wanted to do.
00:20:10.080
Sophomore, junior year in high school, I got a full-time employment during the middle of the summer
00:20:14.600
and it was on Hill Air Force Base landscaping. But as soon as work got over, I would start drinking
00:20:21.180
and it took a bigger role in my life. Like during the weekends when we went camping or hanging out
00:20:26.420
with friends, I started to party. We started to try, you know, like smoking marijuana. And then I
00:20:31.880
started selling marijuana. I didn't really like smoking pot, but I found all of a sudden I had this
00:20:38.880
stature. If I was the guy that could buy the marijuana and sell the marijuana, it was like I was the cool
00:20:45.240
Oh, so that was like an attempt to fit in almost a little bit. It sounds like.
00:20:48.260
Exactly. Exactly. And so, and it felt cool. Like it wasn't very lucrative for me. Like I would buy
00:20:53.780
and sell weed. I wasn't like, Oh, I made 400 bucks this week or whatever. Like I bought it. I would buy
00:21:01.260
alcohol with a drink and then I would get to work and I would, I was trying to regulate it from the
00:21:06.240
very start. Okay. I can only drink on these times and do this and this. And then that's when the
00:21:10.920
trouble started. So I got pulled over, you know, a couple of times I got arrested. I got into some
00:21:17.140
altercations. I got charged with like criminal mischief, like you name it. Like I started getting
00:21:22.740
into trouble. I got into some fights. I got arrested a couple of times and then it was like, okay, I got
00:21:28.160
to clean this up. I got to focus. I got to get back. So I pulled the drinking back. I paid my fines,
00:21:33.720
my court fees, my restitution. I did all those things. And then I got out of trouble.
00:21:37.660
And then now it was time to start school again. So I start school, I would do my preseason wrestling
00:21:42.520
and then I'd wrestle really hard. And as soon as wrestling was over, the drinking would start again
00:21:46.440
on the weekends. And then the next summer it was even more. And then I got my first DUI and I went
00:21:55.160
through the whole process of that, of getting a lawyer and paying, you know, several thousand
00:21:59.560
dollars and following all the guidelines and resources. And then I, I couldn't drink. They put me
00:22:05.760
on house arrest for a month, but I could still work. It started to get worse. It was fun and
00:22:10.860
then fun with consequences very shortly thereafter. And then it was like, every time I drank, there was
00:22:16.600
consequences. And so I had to regulate my drinking and control it even more. And then I got injured
00:22:22.740
before you get into injury. Did you just think that that regulation that you had enough willpower to
00:22:28.640
control it and you didn't, or like, how did that play out or, or were you able to control it?
00:22:33.660
I thought that I was controlling it. And at that time I thought that it was okay, but the
00:22:39.480
repercussions were like, Hey, my, my dad would say like, Hey, you still smell like alcohol from last
00:22:43.740
night. Hey, you shouldn't be drinking. You better not be driving. But in my mind, I had these
00:22:48.480
justifications that, Hey, listen, I'm, I was making at the time like 11 or 12 bucks an hour, which was
00:22:54.080
significantly more than anybody I knew. And I was working full time during the summer. My paychecks
00:23:00.300
weekly were like 350, 400 bucks. I was making almost a couple thousand dollars a month. I'm
00:23:06.160
like, there's no way that I'm an alcoholic and a drug addict. So you were justifying that.
00:23:12.180
Yeah, exactly. And society has taught me that alcoholic is a panhandler and a drug addict is
00:23:19.620
somebody that's like stealing shit out of your garage. And I'm not one of these guys, you know,
00:23:24.100
I'm not a drug dealer. Drug dealer is, you know, this type of person, but realistically I was a drug
00:23:31.980
dealer, you know, and I was doing the legal shit and I was driving under the influence. And I,
00:23:36.940
I was forced to do those things to continue to drink because I had to hide it. And then,
00:23:42.900
you know, senior year came around, I got injured. I was in an arm wrestling tournament and I tore off
00:23:48.660
the growth plate and my left elbow. So I wrestled my whole senior year with that growth plate torn
00:23:54.320
off and not being able to straighten out my left arm. And I ended up losing to two kids my whole
00:24:01.000
senior year. I took third in state. I won a national tournament and I thought, okay, this is my chance.
00:24:06.320
This is my shot to go to college. And I found out that, uh, I qualified for a scholarship and
00:24:11.920
athletic scholarship. But in 2003, title nine took all the wrestling scholarships and gave those
00:24:17.160
scholarships to some female sports. So I wasn't able to accept college money to wrestle. And in 2003,
00:24:29.620
every college in the state of Utah, not one college in the state of Utah had a wrestling program.
00:24:36.500
So I would have had to leave the state. Right. And then you have the out of state tuition and
00:24:41.260
everything else. Yep. And I thought I can't do that. And so what I did was, okay, well,
00:24:48.960
I'll still go to college, but I'll just go to Weaver state because it's close to us.
00:24:52.580
So I signed up, started, I took like way too many classes and I got like a week into it. And I was so
00:24:59.300
overwhelmed with the amount of material that I would have to read that I was just like, there's no way.
00:25:04.400
So I dropped out of a couple of the classes, took just barely enough classes to get by.
00:25:08.220
And my drinking took a bigger role because I wasn't wrestling. And I went over to meet my
00:25:13.740
girlfriend who had been my girlfriend since I was about 15 or 16. We hung out for the first couple
00:25:19.980
of years. And then we started dating. Her name is Chelsea. And I was going over to her house at like
00:25:25.940
two o'clock in the morning after I had been at this party and I was drunk and I was on this little
00:25:30.080
go pad and I wrecked and I shattered my collarbone. And prior to that, I had been prescribed some
00:25:40.080
Percocet or Laura tab and I had taken them and I had realized in taking those, I could catch a buzz.
00:25:48.080
I could still go to work. I could still go to school and nobody could smell alcohol on me,
00:25:54.480
but I still caught a buzz. And then on the weekends, when I mixed the alcohol with the pain
00:25:59.260
pill, I thought, wow, like I've been missing out. This is fantastic. All the anger I had towards not
00:26:06.880
being able to wrestle in college, not being at a college that offered wrestling. I thought, you
00:26:12.060
know what? It doesn't matter now. I have this, I'll do this, I'll figure it out, I'll get a degree or
00:26:16.920
whatever. And then if this doesn't work out, I'll just go get a job working construction. And that'll
00:26:23.840
be that. And my training started falling behind. I started like lifting weights, but there was one
00:26:30.660
MMA gym and I trained a little bit at that gym, but it was kind of like my, my dreams and aspirations
00:26:36.440
were kind of like dwindling away. And I was just like, damn, I don't know. I had to grow up whatever.
00:26:43.780
And when I shattered my collarbone, they prescribed me 10 milligram Oxycontin and Loratabs. So like
00:26:49.700
Loratabs, I would take every four to six hours, they were a 10 milligram Loratab. And it was every
00:26:54.940
four to six hours, I'd take two of those. And then every 12 hours, I would take an Oxycontin.
00:26:59.920
And one of my closest friends that I grew up with since before grade school, who lived right around
00:27:04.620
the corner from me, had fallen off of a three or four story building and broke his back, broke his legs,
00:27:11.320
was hospitalized for a month or so. And he was prescribed pain pills. And at the suggestion
00:27:17.380
of a friend, he started snorting the pain pills. And so he told me, Hey man, I'll pay you $10
00:27:23.800
for those Oxycontins. And I thought in my head, well, why is he willing to pay that much for him?
00:27:29.540
And he said, dude, you suck off the coating, crush it up and snort it. It takes care of all
00:27:36.640
Well, and it's because it's not time released anymore, right? It just right into your bloodstream
00:27:40.100
at that point. Yep. And I wasn't one of the kids that snorted pixie sticks. And so I was kind of
00:27:46.360
like, uh, that doesn't seem like a good idea, but I'll give it a try. He's my friend, you know,
00:27:52.380
I'll give it a try. So what I did is I sucked off the coating, crushed it up, snorted it. And I didn't
00:27:59.520
get that euphoric feeling. I didn't like it. It burnt my nostril. And I thought, I don't think I'm
00:28:05.700
ever going to do that again. And that's where I made my mistake because I lied to myself.
00:28:11.300
Immediately after that, I sucked off the coating of another one. I crushed it up. I snorted it and
00:28:20.280
Why did you do it again? You said you weren't going to do it. And then you just, you did.
00:28:24.000
I don't know. I have this instinct to do one more, to push it a little bit harder,
00:28:31.460
to go a little bit higher, to jump a little bit further. It's inherent in my personality.
00:28:38.520
And I think it was like, you know, that in the back of my mind, I got to do it one more time.
00:28:45.640
I just got to do it one more time. And I did it without even thinking about it. And then it hit me
00:28:49.180
like a million bucks. And I went, wow. Okay. You know what? Screw college. Screw everything.
00:28:57.500
As long as I got this, everything will be okay. I like cleaned my room. I walked around. I did a
00:29:03.760
bunch of stuff that I probably shouldn't have been doing because I had a shattered collarbone.
00:29:07.300
Two weeks later, we got a second opinion. And then they found out that like
00:29:11.320
the little iron bra thing that they had wasn't going to take care of it because it was such a bad
00:29:16.220
break. They had to go in, do surgery, remove like a whole bunch of bone fragments and then repair it,
00:29:23.060
put a plate in, put an extra bone in there. They had to do a pretty major fix. Not to mention,
00:29:29.260
they were able to go in, shave off the growth plate that I had torn off in my elbow, put a plate
00:29:34.540
and a pin in my elbow. So I had two surgeries at one time and they prescribed me so much medication.
00:29:40.700
And I thought, this is wonderful. So I went to college high as fuck for the next year.
00:29:48.200
I don't remember hardly anything. I started working at the SANS club, working overnight so I could go to
00:29:53.920
college and I would just loaded the whole time. And then it came time to get off of them. And my
00:29:59.320
family started to recognize it. And once I mixed the alcohol with the pain pills, like it was over
00:30:04.420
with those pain pills helped me regulate my drinking. But once I mixed them, like all bets were
00:30:10.160
off, it didn't matter. Then, you know, it was like one of my coworkers was a former cocaine user and
00:30:17.180
he was talking about how he used to use cocaine and so cool. So if you're going to buy pain pills
00:30:22.420
illegally, you know, if they don't have pain pills, maybe they have some cocaine. And pretty soon he was
00:30:27.040
like, Hey, you know, this guy's got cocaine. He doesn't have any pain pills. Do you want to buy it?
00:30:31.140
And I was like, well, my boss might buy some. Yeah. You know what? Screw it. I'll buy it.
00:30:36.920
And then I can sell it to him, mark it up. I'll make a little bit of money,
00:30:40.380
but I'm not really interested in it. So I did it. I bought $300 with the cocaine and he took half of
00:30:47.040
it. And so I was left with half of this cocaine, you know, and it was like, it was a little better
00:30:52.400
than an eight ball of cocaine. So, you know, maybe like 20 or 30 lines of cocaine. Right. And so I was
00:30:59.920
stuck with this other half of cocaine. So I just walked into the back of Sam's club in the bathroom
00:31:04.360
on my little break in the middle of the night. And I was like, well, I'm stuck with half of it.
00:31:08.800
I might as well do it. And so I did a little line of cocaine. I walked out, started to work,
00:31:13.100
went back into the bathroom, did another little line of cocaine, went back out and maybe I'll do
00:31:17.680
a little bit more. I went back in, did a little bit more. And then that repeated until I had no more
00:31:23.900
That night, that night. Oh man. And I didn't really like it, but it did give me energy.
00:31:30.400
And I threw like 50 pallets afraid or something. And I was like talking to everybody. And, and I
00:31:36.000
thought, wow, you know, Hey, this makes for some pain pills shit. But then when it was time to go to
00:31:42.160
bed, I was like, uh, I don't know. I can't get to bed. So I smoked a little weed, but I had to go
00:31:48.800
find the weed to smoke the weed. And then, so I smoked a little bit of weed, but that didn't do it.
00:31:52.560
And then I had taken some central nervous system depressants, benzodiazepines, Xanax,
00:31:58.080
Klonopin. And so I was like, well, maybe if I get a milligram of Xanax, that'll help me go to
00:32:02.520
sleep. It's anti-anxiety. Plus it helps you go to sleep. I found somebody, I bought a couple of Xanax
00:32:07.680
and then I finally went to sleep and I was like, well, okay, I'll use a little bit of cocaine.
00:32:14.100
The pain pill will take care of the pain. A little bit of cocaine will be like my cup of coffee. It'll
00:32:18.620
help me get through more pallets. I get all my schoolwork done. And then if I do a little bit
00:32:24.020
too much cocaine, then I'll just take some Xanax. But you see the process of buying all those things,
00:32:29.660
figuring out when and what time to take those. Like you still have to eat. You still have to go
00:32:33.900
to college. You still have to show up. You have to drive to and from those places. You pay for your
00:32:39.180
insurance and those things are expensive. And so holding that together did not work. Pretty soon,
00:32:45.400
I was not a good employee because going to and from the bathroom, 1100 times in an eight hour
00:32:50.580
work period is like, you're not getting a lot of work done. I was getting a lot of drugs done,
00:32:55.940
but not a lot of work done. And then I became irrational, short, you know, obviously I wasn't
00:33:01.680
sleeping very much. And then it just like, it turned into shit pretty soon. My first year of college,
00:33:06.900
I dropped out and I said, college isn't for me. There's no way I'm going to do this.
00:33:09.900
I'm just going to work. But in that time I had got arrested. I had had multiple DUIs and I had all
00:33:17.820
these consequences where I thought, wow, I really need to stop drinking. I got to stop the pain pills.
00:33:23.220
I got to stop everything. I thought going from a graveyard shift to a day shift and then changing
00:33:28.240
and getting outside would help that. So I told myself, I'm going to quit everything. So I did my
00:33:34.360
best. I quit everything. I quit that job, quit everything all at once. Same time. Just I'm
00:33:39.960
done with all this all at once. I was just like, I'm done. I got to be done. And so I withdrawed for
00:33:44.820
a couple of days during that time. My parents kicked me out because of all the charges that I
00:33:50.300
had, but they let me come back and stay at their house while I was coming off all the drugs. I just
00:33:54.720
told them I was really sick and, you know, they let me stay in their basement for a little while.
00:33:59.260
And so I stayed in there for like four or five days and I came off all that shit. And it was
00:34:03.280
literally the worst withdrawals I've ever had from anything. I can't imagine.
00:34:07.480
It was absolutely terrible. And like, just to give you an idea, like I was taking roughly between like
00:34:13.940
one, 10 milligrams of Xanax a day, which is a tremendous amount of Xanax. I was drinking
00:34:20.740
anywhere from like on an average day, like a 12 pack and a pint of whiskey. You know, I was doing
00:34:29.200
maybe like 150 to $300 worth of cocaine a week and not to mention keeping up with the
00:34:35.540
Oxycontin, the Percocet. And so I was taking, you know, 10 to 12 of those a day. And that
00:34:41.400
was pretty average. One time I bought 2000 Somas muscle relaxers from Mexico. And so I was
00:34:48.000
taking, you know, like 10 and then 20 and then 30, 250 milligrams Somas a day. So, I mean,
00:34:54.700
like it was a tremendous amount. And so when I came off of that, like it was really, really rough,
00:34:59.980
but I got hired on at this job or landscaping job, which is where I was comfortable. And I'd had my
00:35:07.280
first job, but he also did sprinkler lines. So I dug an entire quarter acre lot sprinkler line.
00:35:15.400
And the dude was super impressed. He was like, Oh, I'm sure. I don't think I've ever met anybody that
00:35:21.000
could work this hard. And I knew I was capable of working that hard, but I was completely clean.
00:35:25.480
He introduced me to a friend of his and that guy was a, like a foreman or a superintendent at a big
00:35:31.960
excavation company. And he said, Hey man, I'm interested in you coming and working with me.
00:35:37.360
Would you be willing to jump ship and come work? The guy gave me his blessing and he said, yeah.
00:35:41.700
And he hired me on for like six or seven more dollars an hour. So making like a thousand bucks a
00:35:47.180
week and working hard all day. And I jumped on the job. I was completely clean. I felt great.
00:35:55.380
I got two weeks into the job. I got like a two or $3 an hour raise. And the guy told me, dude,
00:36:01.340
you'll go places. They'll pay for surveying degrees. Like you will go places in this company. And if you
00:36:07.140
continue to work like this and all of a sudden my life like shifted, I was like, wow, okay,
00:36:11.340
this is what I'm going to do. And I can succeed at this and I'll make a good living and we'll go on
00:36:17.620
like this. And then right about that time, my girlfriend surprised me and said like, I can't
00:36:23.360
be with you anymore. I'm actually to move to Russia and teach English. And I was devastated.
00:36:31.120
There was like a religious barrier. She was, she was LDS and I wasn't. And so there was a little bit
00:36:37.040
of a religious barrier. And I don't know, she was like my rock during all the hard times, you know,
00:36:43.480
when my family kicked me out, I could always tell her like, oh, poor me, poor me. And she'd be like,
00:36:49.080
oh man, you got the wrong side. And then she had enough of that. She realized that I was the problem,
00:36:54.520
not everybody else. I had cleaned up and I thought, okay, I'm doing better. Everything's good.
00:37:00.860
I'll pay off all my fines, all my court fees, everything will be great. And she kind of
00:37:06.680
surprised me. She ended up leaving. She moved to Russia to teach English. Two or three days later,
00:37:11.760
I got a call from another friend of mine I grew up with. And he, I'd bought pills from him. I bought
00:37:15.840
Xanax from him. And he was part of the deal when we bought all the Selma's and we'd grown up together.
00:37:21.700
It was this little threesome of people, you know, that we did everything together, fish together,
00:37:26.400
we lifted weights together, we wrestled together and we did drugs together. He called me and he said,
00:37:30.520
hey, my girlfriend just had a baby. I have some Percocet. Do you want them? And I said, no,
00:37:34.300
man. I said, I'm a hundred percent sober. I just got a killer job. I got a raise. I'm doing really
00:37:39.920
good. Chelsea left, but like, I'm okay. I'm going to be self-supporting. I got a little apartment.
00:37:46.120
I'm living life, dude. I'm doing good. And he's like, hell yeah, I'm proud of you, bro.
00:37:49.740
You know, blah, blah, blah. And then like six o'clock rolled around after like a 12 or 13 hour shift.
00:37:55.200
And I went, I'm pretty sore. And I think I'll just buy two of those Percocet and take them to
00:38:04.280
take the edge off. Oh yeah. Yeah. And so I called him back frantically and said, hey,
00:38:09.920
do you still have those? And he said, yep. And so I went to his house and I bought two of them
00:38:14.560
and I took them immediately. And within four or five minutes, I caught that buzz and I called him
00:38:23.240
back and I said, can I buy the rest of them? I bought the rest of them. And literally three
00:38:28.960
and a half months later on a three day cocaine and drug bender where I was still working, I got
00:38:35.060
a temporary hire guy to buy me like a pint of vodka. And I was drinking a pint of vodka by the time I got
00:38:41.440
off and drove home. And then I would get my neighbor, cause I was still under the age of 21 to buy me an 18
00:38:47.280
pack. I would drink 16 of them, leave two of them in the morning. And then any pain pills I could get,
00:38:52.600
any cocaine I could get, I went back to that same cycle only more because I had more money.
00:38:59.220
And it was to a point where like, I couldn't even afford a $40 cell phone bill. I'd be calling my
00:39:03.840
parents like I'm a 50 bucks shy on rent this month. So three and a half months later, after a, basically
00:39:10.760
like an, an average night of me trying to overcome a craving beyond my mental control, I hadn't slept for
00:39:18.680
three days. It was time to get to work. I took a whole bunch of Xanax like to go to sleep, but I
00:39:23.580
couldn't go to sleep. And then the Xanax kicked in three 30 in the morning, rolled around. I had to
00:39:28.040
be at work at like four, four, five. And I pulled up to the job site, called my boss before he saw my
00:39:33.700
truck and said, made up some bogus story about some crap that happened. Can I take the day off?
00:39:38.600
And he said, yep, I'll see you tomorrow. And I turned around, I drove my Jeep home. I ran a red
00:39:44.880
light. I got into an accident, rolled my Jeep. Luckily, thankfully the person that ran into me
00:39:51.980
was like uninjured. They just bumped the right rear of my Jeep. Nothing really happened to their car,
00:39:58.620
but mine flipped and rolled and slid like six or 700 feet. I busted out of my Jeep. I sobered up real
00:40:06.000
quick. And I was just like, oh man, I can't go on like this. And my parents came, the ambulance came.
00:40:12.060
I said I was okay. I crawled out of my Jeep. Nobody talked about drugs. Nobody talked about testing me.
00:40:18.520
Nothing ever happened. They took me off to the hospital. Like I refused to ambulance. I got my
00:40:24.020
family to drive me there. I went and then my mom had had them drug test me. And I tested positive for
00:40:30.720
like everything. They were like, Hey, I want to do a drug screen on him. He's, he's, you know,
00:40:36.420
he's still a dependent. He's 20 years old. And they did a drug screen. And I came up positive for like,
00:40:42.580
for everything. The police came and asked, but because of HIPAA, they couldn't release that.
00:40:51.780
And so there was no repercussions for that. And I didn't have a Jeep anymore, a vehicle to get to work.
00:40:58.600
So I had my family drive me to work and I told them I might have a problem with alcohol. And they
00:41:02.740
said, we don't have room for you here, but if you get sober, we would love to have you back.
00:41:08.140
And I never bit back to that job. Three weeks later, I overdosed on heroin in a trailer. And
00:41:15.320
then that was the September 9th, 2005. If anybody's interested in watching the sports centerpiece,
00:41:21.160
you can go to courtmcgee.com and there's a link right on the homepage until they did that sports
00:41:27.160
centerpiece like five or six years later, I had no idea what had happened. Basically I had overdosed
00:41:32.200
in the trailer. The syringe that I'd shot up had fallen in between the wall and the linoleum in
00:41:38.120
this little trailer. I had passed out and there was a girl there. She was sitting outside of the door,
00:41:44.480
like trying to open the door. And then my cousin who I was living with at the time came in,
00:41:48.860
saw her, asked what was going on. And she said, I don't know what happened. Court fell.
00:41:53.600
He's on the floor and he's jammed in between the door. And so my cousin and her friend,
00:41:59.260
they like broke the door down. He was CPR certified. So he started CPR. My cousin called 911.
00:42:07.700
The ambulance turns out there was an ambulance within like a couple of thousand feet of the
00:42:11.980
trailer. Well, yeah, which is probably lucky. I'm sure. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean like literally
00:42:17.420
right outside of the trailer park, there's an ambulance passing by. So when they called it in
00:42:21.620
and they dispatched it, they were like a minute away from the trailer. So they just
00:42:26.400
swerved. They pulled in, they came in, they started working on me, but see, I didn't have
00:42:31.560
track marks because I was only a couple of weeks into using heroin. But that day I had shot up maybe
00:42:36.240
20 times, just a little bit at a time to maintain the high. I wasn't trying to overdose. It was maybe
00:42:42.200
a little bit pure. Maybe there was some fentanyl mixed in. I don't know. I don't know why. Maybe it was
00:42:47.680
the mix of drugs that I was using. Who knows why on that particular day I overdosed, but I did.
00:42:54.020
There was no track marks. Plus I didn't really have any drug charges. I had alcohol related charges,
00:42:59.220
but I wasn't a known drug addict. They didn't find that syringe. I'm sure. Cause it was wedged
00:43:03.180
down where it was. Exactly. And then the kit that I had was in, I wear glasses and it was in a glass
00:43:09.040
case, but it was shut and it was pushed off into the garbage can. It's kind of like there wasn't
00:43:13.640
anything. So they got me into the ambulance. They did CPR all the way to Davis hospital,
00:43:18.800
which I think is around 10 miles under 10 miles right around that period. So probably like five
00:43:26.060
to six minutes, seven minutes, something like that from the point of them picking me up, loading up,
00:43:31.200
and then driving me to the hospital. And they did CPR that whole time. Undercover narcotics officer
00:43:36.780
was like in the area. He was called on location. He went, he searched, he found the syringe.
00:43:42.080
He called it in and said it was a heroin overdose. He found the kit in the garbage can
00:43:46.440
and they were able to administer narcolone after 16 minutes of CPR and defibrillations.
00:43:54.700
They reversed the effects, but they figured there was like eight minutes where I had no
00:43:59.360
heartbeat or no pulse. Really? So they interviewed all those people. They talked to them. That's how
00:44:05.240
they came up with all the story of what actually happened. Cause my family showed up when they loaded
00:44:11.500
me into the ambulance, you know, and everybody was freaking out and wondering what had happened.
00:44:15.760
And nobody really knew the girl that was there. Like I still, to this day, don't know who she is.
00:44:21.000
I don't know. It was this crazy set of circumstances, but they got there, they reversed the effect.
00:44:26.320
And because they didn't know how long I was out before they started CPR to get oxygen to my brain,
00:44:32.080
Man, just a quick pause to make an announcement. You know, I look around and I see so much good
00:44:38.880
in society today, but I also see a lot of areas in which society definitely needs some improvement.
00:44:44.720
The other day, someone asked me if I could change just one thing about the world, what would it be?
00:44:49.260
Without thinking, I suggested that I would ensure every household had an engaged father in it.
00:44:54.680
I truly, truly believe that strong, loving, supportive fathers in the home have the power
00:45:01.380
to change the world. But you know, as well as I do that stepping into that calling is it's a
00:45:06.620
challenge. And this is the reason that we've decided to host a new event designed to give
00:45:11.920
fathers the tools they need to help usher their sons into manhood. When you join us at the inaugural
00:45:18.120
order of man legacy experience, you're going to work alongside your son to compete and complete
00:45:23.440
a series of challenges and tasks designed to test you and your son physically, mentally,
00:45:29.360
and emotionally. We only have a few spots remaining. If you've been looking for a rite of passage for
00:45:34.860
your boy, this is it. The experience is September 20th through the 23rd, 2018. So mark your calendar
00:45:42.480
again, September 20th through the 23rd, 2018. And again, it's for you and your sons between the ages
00:45:49.160
of eight to 15, eight to 15. Uh, if you want to learn more and lock in your spot, do it quickly
00:45:55.300
because we only have those few spots remaining head to order of man.com slash legacy. Again,
00:46:00.840
that's order of man.com slash legacy. Now with that said, you can do that after the show,
00:46:05.420
but let's get back to the conversation with court. Somebody who is in long-term sobriety,
00:46:11.180
who is a licensed clinical social worker came in when I came out of the coma and he talked to me,
00:46:16.880
he spoke my language. He knew what I had been through. He knew I wanted to quit and couldn't.
00:46:22.800
And he made the suggestion to go to residential inpatient drug treatment and to attend a 12 step
00:46:29.860
meeting and listen and see how I could identify to the people talking. I just knew I needed to do
00:46:36.840
what he said. I trusted him. He was like a role model with a solution. And he was like the Southern
00:46:43.560
California surfer guy in his sixties with 20 plus years of sobriety.
00:46:47.900
Is that why you trusted him? Because he had been through an experience as well. I don't know if it
00:46:52.500
was similar to yours or what, but yes, from my understanding, I did three months of outpatient
00:46:57.200
drug treatment. Now I don't remember any of it. I don't remember doing outpatient drug treatment.
00:47:03.480
I know I went to a therapist for a little while, but like that was in the height of my Oxycontin
00:47:09.540
addiction. So, so you were just strung out that whole time, strung out the whole time. They never
00:47:14.120
did drug tests. And so I didn't even know, but I graduated that program. And I mean, I don't even
00:47:20.220
remember, I don't remember the guy's name. I don't remember any of the conversations we had. And I did
00:47:24.720
that for three months. So it's like, what in the hell, you know, but this guy knew where I had been.
00:47:31.580
And after five minutes of talking to me, I trusted him. And so I took that opportunity. I went to
00:47:37.900
treatment. My family said, okay, listen, you're still on our health insurance. We'll allow you
00:47:43.260
to do this, but this is your last shot. Cause I had been kicked out a year earlier. Like
00:47:48.340
every once in a while, my mom would like, I'd pay gas money or sometimes it would pay 30 bucks
00:47:54.100
towards my cell phone bill, or they'd give me an extra 50 bucks for rent or, you know, or buy me
00:48:00.380
food or something like that. But outside of that, like they had really tried to cut ties because I was
00:48:05.380
so messed up all the time. Yeah. And so I went and I was like, I got to do this. I went and after
00:48:13.440
like four or five days of being there and their detox or what their psych ward. And that's like
00:48:18.320
fully immersive, right? I mean, you're there, you're on site, four hours a day, you're on site
00:48:23.180
and you're with a bunch of other people that are trying to get, achieve the same thing as you like
00:48:27.460
have a serious problem and are trying to achieve recovery. And these people, like it was 12 step based.
00:48:33.120
So like similar to Alcoholics Anonymous or a Narcotics Anonymous, like a, it was kind of a 12 step
00:48:40.380
based program. And so they would have these 12 step meetings that were in the facility and we were
00:48:48.720
available to go to those. And in doing that, this big guy named Dave stood up and he said, I'm Dave
00:48:54.920
and I'm a drug addict and alcoholic and I'm in recovery. And if I stay sober for one more day,
00:48:59.940
I'll have six months of continuous sobriety. And he basically told my story the way he felt,
00:49:06.900
how he used, how all the problems happened and all that. And I thought, holy shit, this guy's got
00:49:12.600
six months. Like I lasted two weeks just before I got the call from, from the kid to pick up the
00:49:18.040
Percocet after his girlfriend had the baby. Like I had two weeks. That's the best I could do.
00:49:23.380
And it was the best I'd felt in years. I went and talked to that guy and I got his number and I
00:49:29.320
started talking to that guy and I made it through the treatment center. I graduated. I had three
00:49:35.320
relapses. They were just one day relapses for the first two. And then maybe four or five days shy of
00:49:41.440
having six months. Like that guy had explained to me in the course of that treatment center, I met this
00:49:47.000
girl. She was in recovery. We kind of had some, whatever. We ended up getting into this
00:49:51.220
makeshift relationship. When I was new in sobriety, I had felony drug charges, all this
00:49:57.520
stuff going on. And that guy that I talked to in the meeting was like, you need to do some service
00:50:03.320
work. And I didn't know what he meant by that, but I decided to go back to the high graduated from
00:50:08.500
and offer my services free of charge as an assistant wrestling coach. And so I went in there and after my
00:50:15.020
first practice, I was like, I got to compete again. I started training. I started wrestling with
00:50:20.980
those guys. I went back to that mixed martial arts gym. I started like, I'm going to fulfill
00:50:25.480
that dream of becoming a mixed martial artist. That girlfriend that I had bought me tickets to
00:50:31.260
a UFC event. And so we went out to Las Vegas, went to the UFC event. And then I don't remember what we
00:50:37.800
did, but she had a diet Coke with lime and she had relapsed. She had put a vodka in her diet Coke with
00:50:46.120
lime. And so I went to take a drink and she snatched it away from me and said, you can't drink that.
00:50:50.220
And I was like, why? And she was like, there's alcohol in it. I relapsed. I've been drinking for
00:50:54.540
the last couple of days. And I was like, oh man, that's not good. And a couple hours later,
00:51:00.160
she bought me a Long Island iced tea and slid it my way. And I had no mental defense against that
00:51:05.840
first drink. All the things I had learned in treatment, all that stuff. I wasn't living that
00:51:11.160
on a daily basis. And so I didn't have a power greater than myself that could stop me from doing
00:51:17.280
that. And so I took one sip. And after that one sip, it was the worst two weeks. And one day of
00:51:23.360
my life, four days later, I ended up in Iowa with no pants on looking for meth.
00:51:27.660
Oh man. Let's fast forward a little bit now, because how do you, you said 12 years, right?
00:51:33.380
Sober now. Yep. Is it just that you have the tools now to overcome this? I mean, what is it
00:51:38.320
that's helping you now? So after coming back from Iowa, I was done. I was done running. I was
00:51:45.400
absolutely done. That was April 16th, 2006. I got a job three days later. I called the district
00:51:51.720
attorney at the time. I told her I needed to go to prison to get sober. I couldn't get sober. I'd
00:51:56.240
been using for a couple of weeks. And she said, come in, make it here on Friday sober. I ended up
00:52:00.900
getting hired onto a job. A couple of days later, I went into my interview with her and she said,
00:52:07.460
I'm not going to put you in prison, but I'm going to put you in this aftercare program for
00:52:12.340
offenders that are coming out of the state prison that are being re-intubated back into society.
00:52:17.320
So I did this Friday meeting and she gave me mandatory urine analysis tests four to five
00:52:22.900
days a week. I had to call in, give them my color, go do these mandatory piss tests. And I started
00:52:27.660
working. And then I started going back to those meetings and started calling that guy again.
00:52:32.460
And so one day turned into two days, turned into two weeks, turned into two months,
00:52:36.720
turned into, I became a plumber. And then I started training one of like my journeyman plumber
00:52:43.320
that was my boss. He was an old school kickboxer and he started holding the tie pads for me and
00:52:49.780
teaching, you know, and like working with me. And we decided to start this gym together.
00:52:52.900
So we started a gym together. All of a sudden it attracted all these young GI dudes that were
00:52:58.040
super tough from Hill Air Force Base and some young kids. We started going to jujitsu gyms.
00:53:03.480
We got a jujitsu guy that came in and started teaching. I started powerlifting again. I started
00:53:09.340
doing this stuff and I thought, okay, I'm going to give myself a year and then I'm going to compete.
00:53:13.280
Two or three weeks after that happened, I decided to go bowling with a bunch of friends who were
00:53:17.620
sober. And I saw Chelsea, that girlfriend that left me a year earlier. I was like, holy shit,
00:53:23.840
it's Chelsea. And I fell in love with this girl when I was 15. So I walked up to her and I was like,
00:53:28.620
Chelsea. And she's like, court, you're alive. Turns out her mom worked intake the night that
00:53:34.280
I was brought into the hospital and she thought I was in an accident and she thought I had passed
00:53:38.280
away. And so she gave me a hug and she said, you don't smell like alcohol. And I said, I'm completely
00:53:44.060
sober. And she was like, wow. Four months later, she was pregnant with our first son, Isaac, who's now
00:53:50.100
11. And I started training after work every day. Four or five months later, it was like February 2nd,
00:53:57.420
2007. I took my first MMA fight after having 10 amateur boxing matches, two professional boxing
00:54:05.100
matches, about 40 competition jujitsu tournaments, folk style, open wrestling tournaments in a year of
00:54:13.340
competition. And I took my first fight. And when they raised my in Grand Junction, Colorado, I was hooked
00:54:19.360
like I was hooked when I snorted that Oxycontin. I was like, this is what I'm going to do.
00:54:24.940
Eight months later, I signed to fight Jeremy Horn, one of the greatest MMA fighters of all times.
00:54:31.300
He had over 100 fights. I took that fight. He was my sixth professional fight. I was undefeated
00:54:37.840
and I lost a close decision to him. And I thought, this is my shot. Tried out for the ultimate fighter
00:54:43.380
season seven. The one that Matt Brown was on didn't make it because they didn't like my attitude. I had
00:54:48.740
about a year sober and I'd give myself two years to make it. Me and my wife got married. I wanted
00:54:53.420
two years of sobriety before we got married. We ended up getting married. We moved out. I moved
00:54:58.520
down to Utah County to where this gym was that had a bunch of high level fighters in it. And there was
00:55:05.260
a division one wrestling college, the first one after that title nine and all the programs acquitting.
00:55:12.220
They were a D2 program. Then they went division one. And I thought, okay, I'll start farming out
00:55:16.680
wrestlers. I can go wrestle with the college kids. That's where it started, man. And I gave
00:55:21.520
myself two years. And then at two years, I was just about ready to go back to work. I was working
00:55:26.620
like 70, 80 hours a week. I was running the front desk at the gym, running a supplement shop, selling
00:55:31.720
clothes on the side, teaching classes and doing plumbing side work in the middle of the night,
00:55:36.680
trying to support my family, being self-supporting, paying for health insurance, still paying lawyer fees
00:55:42.500
and court fines for all the trouble that I'd been in and then maintaining sobriety. And then I hit that
00:55:47.360
mark where I had three years of sobriety and I was the scary guy that was 11 and one that had one
00:55:57.260
loss to one of the guys that had just fought Chuck Liddell for the title. And so it was hard for me to
00:56:03.440
find fights. And I thought I'm at the end of my rope. I'm going to have to go back to work.
00:56:07.140
A curly haired bearded guy came in and said, you need to go try out. And I said, I don't have
00:56:13.600
enough money to go try out. And he said, well, I got 500 bucks in here to cover your wages and I'll
00:56:19.560
buy you a plane ticket and you're going to take this. And so I was like, all right, I can't guarantee
00:56:25.780
that I can pay you back. It'll take me a long time, but I'm going to go try out. So I went and I tried
00:56:30.400
out, made it through the first two. And then I did the interview and those guys asked me, you know,
00:56:34.740
for a reality television show purposes, the season seven or 11 of the Ultima fighter,
00:56:39.420
the Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz season. They said, what makes you different? Why should we put you
00:56:43.320
on this show? And I said, the only thing that makes me different is September 9th, 2005. I
00:56:49.200
overdosed on heroin. If I stay sober for another couple of months off four years of continuous
00:56:53.920
sobriety, I've been through some shit. And that was it. They were like, great. They like you.
00:56:58.440
Not to mention I had an 11 to one record. I got the call.
00:57:02.560
Yep. A couple of days later, they said, I made it. And I turned around and I told all
00:57:07.720
the people in recovery that I surrounded myself. There's no way I'm going on that show. There's
00:57:11.460
unlimited alcohol, blah, blah, blah. And one of those guys that I really look up to like
00:57:16.340
a spiritual advisor, he said, if you make it on that show and there's somebody struggling
00:57:21.360
out there by your story, do you think you could help them? And I was like, yeah, man, millions
00:57:27.880
of people will watch this show. And he said, do you think you could better financially provide
00:57:31.800
for your family? I said, yeah, man, if I, if I win the show, my life changes. And even
00:57:36.520
if I make it on the show, my stock goes up in local shows. And so he said, well, maybe
00:57:41.260
I'll say a prayer. So I said, I had a little vision of me holding up the trophy. And I was
00:57:46.520
like, well, I guess I'm going. And I went, I went through the whole process. I won my first
00:57:51.220
fight. I lost my second fight. I was brought back. I finished the next three guys. And then
00:57:56.120
in front of like four or 5 million people, I won season 11, the ultimate fighter live
00:58:01.160
on Spike TV. And then I dedicated my fight to all those people who are struggling. I
00:58:05.900
became a person in long-term recovery and I was open with my story. I had these crazy
00:58:11.260
highlight fight, career fights and all this stuff that happened. And like the whirlwind
00:58:16.240
of getting famous overnight, especially just in the, in the mixed martial arts industry.
00:58:20.780
And then six years after sobriety, I get a call from an undercover narcotics officer.
00:58:27.800
And he said, you know, this is detective. So-and-so blah, blah, blah. I work undercover
00:58:31.920
narcotics. I need you to give me a call back. And I froze. So I'm married. I've got a second
00:58:38.100
kid on the way. I'm like, Oh shit. Oh, I asked my wife like, Hey, what do I do with this? And
00:58:46.900
she said, we'll call the guy back. And so I called the guy back and he said, I want you
00:58:51.280
to come share your story at the Capitol building, the Utah state Capitol building. Um, the officer
00:58:56.140
who's responsible for you being alive will be present. And I was like, wow, I got to take
00:59:02.140
this opportunity to thank him. And so I went up, I thanked him publicly. And then I shared
00:59:06.940
my story and it was very powerful. There was quite a few people in tears. There was a judge
00:59:12.040
who had lost a son to overdose. We talked for several hours after that. And then I was
00:59:17.160
invited to speak at the Utah narcotics officer association, which is like their annual banquet
00:59:22.820
with every narcotics officer in the state of Utah, which was founded in like 1991, September
00:59:28.140
9th, 2013, the same day I overdosed six years later, I shared my story in front of every narcotics
00:59:37.120
officer in the state of Utah. I had great success. I had officers ask if I would come speak in
00:59:43.400
schools in the counties that they worked in. And then I went and I spoke at my very first
00:59:48.280
school. I had kids come up to me after one in particular that was like, I need help. I
00:59:53.060
need to quit. I think I'm going down the same route. I was able to introduce him to somebody
00:59:56.880
and get him the help necessary, the professional help necessary to change the trajectory of his
01:00:02.640
life. He did. He currently works on Hill Air Force Base. He got the help necessary. He's
01:00:08.220
sober. He's doing really well. One school led to 150 schools later led to the McGee Project.
01:00:16.440
And now I share personal experience of drug addiction and how elusive and crazy it is. And
01:00:26.360
it's right in the midst of this opiate crisis, which it's perfect. Like I offer a solution.
01:00:31.780
I can be a role model with a solution, not to mention kids that are rough around the edges
01:00:36.480
listen to me. I can offer support because of the treatment centers that I've had an opportunity
01:00:42.680
to see grow and I trust them. I have a host of friends that are licensed clinical social
01:00:50.600
workers, people that specialize in suicide prevention. And so I make those connections
01:00:55.520
after I speak, you know, and offer kids support that want help. Not to mention I give an education
01:01:01.020
to kids who don't think it can happen to them or don't know that it can happen. And that drug
01:01:07.080
addiction and that disease of addiction can be triggered by a prescription given to you for
01:01:12.140
breaking or rolling your ankle. Right. Something positive to help. Exactly.
01:01:16.840
Yeah. And so I started this 501c3 nonprofit, the McGee Project, and we get donations. We're able to get to
01:01:24.500
schools that can't afford it, places that can't afford it. I recently spoke at a school in Kentucky,
01:01:29.760
in Western Kentucky, Marshall County High, the school that experienced the shooting in January
01:01:34.840
of this year. I was able to go out and share and carry the message of hope because they had some
01:01:41.460
opiate problems and some drug problems. And I was able to go share. It was fully funded by a couple
01:01:47.620
of sponsors. We have an opportunity to get in front of thousands and thousands of kids, which is
01:01:52.440
important because based on that USDA statistic of over 30 million people in long-term recovery and 90%
01:02:00.700
of them starting in their teenage years. Well, I married my high school sweetheart. My high school
01:02:06.040
wrestling coach married my wife and I, my two closest friends experienced accidental overdoses and died.
01:02:12.860
Like my story is befitting that of a high school student.
01:02:15.980
And so I'm able to do something outside, outside of the mixed martial arts career and the professional
01:02:23.860
athletic career. When that career comes to an end, I can focus on speaking and presenting and I'll,
01:02:30.140
I'll still have the stage that the UFC has built me and that I've built myself with the community
01:02:35.480
around me. And I can be a productive member of society. I can be a positive role model with the
01:02:40.340
solution. It's wonderful. It's like, it's an opportunity. And not to mention,
01:02:43.980
I still can train 14, 15, 16 hours a week and focus on my professional career. It's been a crazy,
01:02:53.220
crazy time. I thought it was impossible to stay sober for six months when I heard that
01:02:57.460
kid say it, but you know, I'm here with well over 4,500 days of continuous sobriety over 12 years of
01:03:05.820
sobriety. And everybody I've surrounded myself that has helped me become the person I am today
01:03:12.020
is people in long-term recovery. And I see that we can accomplish incredible things. We just can't do
01:03:20.620
it on drugs and alcohol. And it's important. I didn't think I was going to become a professional
01:03:25.560
speaker. And I speak outside of high schools. I just think it's very fitting and more helpful, but
01:03:32.540
you know, I've been hired to speak at some big corporations and big companies on personal
01:03:37.020
development, team building. I guess I could characterize myself as an expert. I have,
01:03:42.840
you know, in excess of 10,000 hours of mat time. And in doing that, you know, I have built a team that
01:03:49.980
has helped me succeed at the highest level in combative sports from nutritionist to accountant
01:03:55.940
to my teammates that I hired out of college. I've attracted some of the top coaches in the world,
01:04:01.820
rest in peace. But Howard Davis Jr., 76 Olympic gold medalist was my boxing coach.
01:04:07.800
Sammy Henson, the Olympic silver medalist is my wrestling coach. John Hackleman, Chuck Liddell's
01:04:13.620
head coach for years and years is my head coach. I have Rob Handley here in Utah that heads up my
01:04:21.160
coaching and does my, my network and my technical jujitsu work. It's, it's like my hard work and
01:04:28.280
determination to succeed in mixed martial, coupled with long-term recovery, staying sober one day at
01:04:34.620
a time has allowed me to become a person I never thought I could be. I mean, this is why we wanted
01:04:38.660
to have you on the show, man, to share that story and to tell people what you've been through and what
01:04:44.200
you've experienced. I got to wind things down just for the sake of time a little bit here. I want to ask
01:04:48.200
you a couple of questions as we do. The first question is, what does it mean to be a man?
01:04:52.740
So to me, being loving, being kind, being accepting. And you know, when I tell you that
01:05:03.620
I'm going to do something or that I'm going to be there, that I can fit myself to be available to do
01:05:09.480
that. Right on, man. That's powerful. Wholeheartedly agree. How do we connect with you? If somebody's
01:05:14.560
listening, wants to get in touch with you, learn more about your story. I'm going to link some things
01:05:18.160
up in our show notes as well, but how do we connect with you, brother? Well, if you want to watch the
01:05:21.660
Sports Center piece, you can go to courtmcgee.com. It's about 10 minutes long. That's my intro when
01:05:28.420
I speak a lot of the time. Pretty powerful and short, doesn't take a lot of time. If you're
01:05:33.100
interested in booking a speaking engagement, say you're like a youth treatment center, youth
01:05:39.080
corrections, youth detentions, high school, middle school, anything with youth, it's contact
01:05:46.300
at mcgeeproject.org. And you can go to mcgeeproject, M-C-G-E-E-P-R-O-J-E-C-T.org.
01:05:56.400
And if you want to, we've made it available to make donations through the website. So if you want
01:06:02.340
to help get us to the facilities, can't afford to hire us, then you can make that possible.
01:06:10.940
Right. We'll make sure we link that all up. I just got to tell you, man, I appreciate you.
01:06:14.060
That's why I wanted to have you on the show is when we had an opportunity to connect. I mean,
01:06:17.440
your story is just so powerful and real. And I know there's a lot of people that have experienced or
01:06:22.440
are experiencing similar things to you or know people that are. And I really think this message
01:06:27.040
is something that needs to be shared. So I want to thank you, man, for taking your time and sharing
01:06:31.000
some of that story and appreciate all the work that you're doing.
01:06:33.460
Yeah. And for anybody who's listening, but struggling right now,
01:06:42.260
There it is, gentlemen, my conversation with Court McGee. Like I said, this one was a little
01:06:47.840
different than I've done in the past because I just wanted to give Court the mic and let him run
01:06:52.320
with it because his story is incredible in a lot of ways. It's inspiring, certainly. And I know that
01:06:59.000
there's going to be men out there who resonate, whether it's yourself or you have a brother or a
01:07:03.640
friend or a colleague or a coworker who's dealing with some issues with addiction. And I thought this
01:07:09.680
would be a great opportunity to bring on a man who has battled it himself, who has overcome and
01:07:15.460
working towards continuing to overcome his addiction. And of course, have turned that into
01:07:19.400
a powerful force for good. So if this resonates with you, I'm glad if you know somebody that needs
01:07:25.720
to hear this message, please, I ask that you share this. The more people that are going to hear this
01:07:30.700
message in every show that we do, I think the better off we're going to be because we're going to have
01:07:35.120
more men that are stepping into the calling of being a man. So guys, make sure you connect with
01:07:40.180
Court. Look what he's up to with his foundations. Go read his story. Learn more about what he's doing.
01:07:45.180
Absolutely incredible. Hit me up on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, wherever you're doing the
01:07:49.860
social media thing. I'm really active on Instagram lately. In fact, our Instagram page and profile is
01:07:55.820
really, really growing, which is a testament to the power of the messages that we're sharing. So
01:08:00.720
that's at Instagram.com slash Ryan Michler, M-I-C-H-L-E-R. That's my user name over there.
01:08:09.220
Anyways, guys, I hope that you enjoyed the episode. I'm glad that you're here. I'm glad
01:08:12.940
you're tuning in each and every week. We could not possibly do this without your support.
01:08:17.520
And I'm just blown away with the messages that I get from you guys who are stepping up in your
01:08:23.140
marriages and stepping up in your businesses and leading your communities and doing all of the things
01:08:27.740
that I know I'm working on doing a little better in my life. And I'm humbled and inspired that you're
01:08:32.240
doing the same thing. So I will sign out for the day until Friday. Take action and become the man you
01:08:38.060
are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast. You're ready to take charge of
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your life and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.